Living in the City: The Identity Strategies of Schoolchildren in an Urban Setting Confronted by the Stigma of Being “Children of Nongmingong”

ABSTRACT: Based on an ethnographic survey in a primary school for the children of rural migrant workers in Hangzhou, this study examines the effects of the process of stigmatisation and the forms of internalisation associated with the “nongmingong” status of their parents. It also looks at how some of these “children of nongmingong” who go to school in the city are able to reverse this stigma. In particular, the study analyses the identity strategies deployed by students aged between ten and fourteen to deal with the stigma of their place of abode, by drawing a distinction between individual strategies (when they are alone with the investigator) and group strategies (in the presence of their peers at school). KEYWORDS: stigmatisation, socialisation, urban segregation, children of rural migrant workers, Hangzhou.